Well this made my day

Eli Roth's Trailer Trash to be released August 22! I didn't expect this, since Hostel: Part II tanked and Roth was (rightfully) pissed about piracy ruining his movie's chances - didn't he post something on his Myspace about how you wouldn't see an Eli Roth film in theater for a few years? Thank god he got over that. I think this movie is coming out so quickly because it will take only a few days to film and is really more of a fun project than anything. Can Roth do comedy? The Thanksgiving trailer was basically my favorite thing of this entire year, so I think so. But I'm sort of a fan-girl. Thoughts?

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Hostel: Part Two (Eli Roth, 2007)

Hostel: Part Two was probably my most anticipated film of 2007. Not only did I love Hostel, both for its content and its unabashed return to R-rated horror, I have been thoroughly charmed by writer/director Eli Roth's presence since then. He has proven himself, in everything I have seen/read of him, to be a genuine horror fan, a guy who loves gore but is also funny, intelligent, and well-spoken about said gore. So when I got the chance to go to a preview screening of the sequel with a Roth Q&A afterward, it didn't matter to me that it was three hours' drive both ways and a work night. This was something I had to do, and it was completely worth it. I don't want to divulge much about the movie, because the shocks are there, and real. The plot is seemingly the same as in the first movie; three American students, this time female, are studying abroad in Italy and are convinced by a native to go to Slovakia for a spa weekend. Bloody havoc ensues. But as opposed to the last movie, where the first half of the movie was tits & ass, and then cut right to torture, this movie has tension all the way through, beginning right away where the first movie let off: Paxton on a train, missing a few fingers. I loved the choice to start the movie immediately where the last ended, really making it part two and not some hokey sequel (something Roth said was very much a conscious choice on his part). The gore is good, the shocks are good, the conclusion is very satisfying, but what surprised me most was the wicked, hilarious humor throughout the film. A few at the Q&A said it was broad and almost took away from the horror, but to me, it added to it. If we the audience are laughing during all this, what does that say about us? What does that say about human nature? Not only is it funny, it's bitingly clever - just when I thought I had the entire thing figured out, things change. There's no weak twist, just unexpected changes. The whole film is a very tight ship, with moments of intense terror (both violent and of human nature) and equally intense drama and humor. The high point of the experience was definitely getting to interact with Roth himself. When his plane was an hour delayed, instead of making the audience wait for him, he called in and teleconferenced with us until he could make it. All in all, he talked for about an hour (way longer than I expected), giving (hilarious) anecdotes about making this film and his others, dealing with the MPAA (he had almost only good things to say, suprisingly enough), advice on how to make small-budget movies seem not so small, and answering any and every question with refreshing honesty. The man is someone who so obviously cares about horror films and especially about his fans; he made a point of saying several times that he made this movie for us, and all he wanted to do was make a better, more satfying sequel for the people who loved the first movie. One thing Roth wanted from everyone who saw the film, and that I am happy to oblige, is to tell everyone what a great movie this is, and urge everyone we know to see it the first weekend (next weekend, June 8). Because even though this movie has been produced through the studio system, it doesn't have the huge backing of a, say, Ocean's 13, which opens the same weekend and has tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars poured into its marketing alone, whereas this movie cost less than ten million to make, and can't be as widely advertised because of it's R rating. So, if you love horror, if you want to show your support for a movie like this and show the studios that people would rather see a smart, taut gore film than a PG-13 schlockfest, SEE HOSTEL PART TWO NEXT WEEKEND. I know I'll be there Friday night. You should be, too. 9.5/10 Here are a few pictures of Roth speaking, including one of me and him (excuse the camera phone blurriness, I was afraid of being murdered by the MPAA).

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Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino, 2007) and some thoughts on the box-office debacle

As I said in my Planet Terror review, I liked Death Proof less than PT, but that does not mean too much. Tarantino's trademarks are all over the movie: foot fetishes, Big Kahuna Burger, even a remarkably Reservoir Dogs-ian conversation around a diner table. It's a good thing, too, because all these things fit perfectly within the framework of an exploitation film. As a "grindhouse" movie, Death Proof is a better example, with its hot girls and fast cars. The movie is in two distinct parts, both starring Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike: the first, about Jungle Julia and her friends, and the second, starring Kill Bill stuntwoman Zoe Bell as herself and featuring Rosario Dawson and two other ladies as her friends. Both groups of women are, obviously, remarkably foxy and verbose, and often pretty clever. Both are terrorized by Stuntman Mike, with varying results. The big difference in the two stories is between the passivity of the first group of women versus the aggression of the second, making the first half of the movie (up until the last 45 minutes, actually) kind of...boring. For me, things didn't get going until Zoe and her friends decide to take the badass white car out for a test drive. Tarantino is brilliant in his decision to have them talk about playing "ship's mast" for almost 15-20 minutes before revealing what it actually was. What a buildup! What a payoff, as well. The last 20-30 minutes of Death Proof is what the phrase "edge of your seat" was made for, so incredibly tense and then gratifying. For those final few minutes, I can even forgive the drawn-out, aforementioned Reservoir Dogs throwback scene, even though Tarantino's expository dialogue sounds forced at times coming out of these women's mouths. Tarantino can't write women? Fair enough, but he sure can write a car chase. And that's really what mattered here. 8.5/10 My favorite part of the entire Grindhouse experience, however, was Eli Roth's faux trailer for "Thanksgiving," seen below. Hilarious, disgusting, and utterly 80s. Roth hit the nail on the head with this one, and gave me the definite feeling that he should actually make Thanksgiving, as well as reinforcing my belief that Roth is one of the, if not the, best horror director working today. Totally whet my appetite for Hostel II, if it could have been any more. But the biggest Grindhouse story is how it got trampled at the Easter weekend box office. Like many others, I was both surprised and disappointed, but I can't say that I was as surprised reading the rumor that the Weinsteins might break up the films and rerelease them, soon. Obviously the problem wasn't with the poor marketing, or the release on Easter weekend, but because you had to pay $8 for two movies. Sarcasm, of course, but that's a quick fix that only addresses part of the problem. Why would people go see an R-rated gore fest on the holiest of weekends? Sure, I did, but I doubt I'm the typical American moviegoer. This is definitely a niche picture, but I think a lot more could have been done, and a lot better, by the Weinstein Company in the marketing department. The movie was advertised on the strength of director names and the novelty of it all, when the plots should have been better featured. I'm planning on going to see Grindhouse again in the theater this week, but I'm not sure I would do the same thing for the single movies. It seems like pure greed on the Weinstein Co's part. Just take it on the chin, guys: you did a bad job marketing this and it was kind of a failure. That doesn't mean it's not a great movie, or not a great idea. Just not on Easter.

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